He abandoned his medical practice in 1872 to assist his brother in establishing the Popular Science Monthly, and subsequently was associated in editing. After his brother's death in 1887, he became its editor-in-chief, remaining in that position until 1900.

He contributed occasionally to the pages of Popular Science Monthly under his own name, and for many years prepared the articles on chemistry, metallurgy, and physiology for Appletons'Annual Cyclopædia. He edited Huxley's 1866 work Lessons in Elementary Physiology, to which he added seven chapters on hygiene, and it became the 1868 work Elements of Physiology and Hygiene.[2] He wrote Pioneers of Science in America (1895).